Jammerzine has an exclusive interview with a legend of loud in the form of Sahaj Ticotin from the rock band Ra. As the world cautiously opens up and the venues begin to fill, Ra are set to take their music on the road with fellow acts Awake At Last, REDDSTAR, September Mourning, Any Given Sin and Killakoi on select dates. The tour begins this Friday (August 20th, 2021).
In this interview we talk with Sahaj about the new tour and their latest album, ‘Intercorrupted’, Ra’s musical history and where Ra is headed musically.
Ra is a band that, in my opinion, came out at the right time. I remember the late ’90s. I also remember, it was getting a bit boring in regards to music. Ra was my ‘Holy Sh*t!’ moment. That glorious mix of middle eastern and modern western that is ‘Do You Call My Name‘ made me play the guitar in front of my stereo again. Their genre-redefining at the turn of the century turned the century into a place that could survive creatively. ‘Intercorrupted’ is a continuation of such and sees the band take a more accessible and melodic approach. Where could the band be headed next? Actually, there is an answer in the interview.
Watch and enjoy!
About Ra
Formed in 1996, Ra took off in 2002, when their song “Do You Call My Name” from their album From One was released. Their music was described as “exotic yet familiar, heavy yet funky, direct yet sophisticated, sensual yet soulful, unrelenting yet cathartic.”
The band is known for their hit songs “Do You Call My Name,” “Fallen Angels,” “Don’t Turn Away,” and “Broken Hearted Soul.” To date, Ra has sold 400,000+ albums in North America alone.
In the 8 years since Ra’s last studio release (2013’s Critical Mass), Sahaj has been hard at work replicating the formula for his success by producing other artists while the rest of the band has pursued independent projects; however, collectively, they feel now is the time for a comeback. What makes the timing so special is that all original members of the band will be together again to not only create the new album, but tour it as well. After a very successful re-emergence on 2020’s Shiprocked, the band has again tapped into the fan based that sustained them all these years.
About ‘Intercorrupted’
Ra released their new album, ‘Intercorrupted’, via Wake Up! Music Rocks on March 19, 2021. The album has guest features from Lajon Witherspoon of Sevendust and Dustin Bates of Starset.
The band is hitting the road with the two runs announced for August and November.
Prior to the release of the album, the first single of the albums same name debuted in October 2020.
RA ARE:
- Sahaj Tictotin – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
- Ben Carroll – lead guitar
- P.J. Farley – bass
- Skoota Warner – drums
Featured image by Chet Atkins/Sweetwater Studios.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/OfficialRA
https://www.instagram.com/officialraband
https://twitter.com/ratheband
https://twitter.com/raband
https://raband.net
https://www.youtube.com/channel/RaOffficial
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Lazaris Pit Premieres ‘You Don’t Tag Me in Memes Anymore’ & ‘Cloudsculpting’ Singles (The Week in #Indie Segment)
Lazaris Pit drops their new single titled ‘You Don’t Tag Me in Memes Anymore’ plus the B-Side ‘Cloudsculpting’. This is the perfect ‘capture the band in the moment’ moment. We get that garage-perfect sound with that quirky attitude and tight-yet-loose feeling in the vein of Dinasaur Jr. and the like but all Lazaris Pit in execution and scope.
With ‘Cloudsculpting’ we get the same side of a different coin with an adventurous song climbing to the top with varied guitar chord progressions and a hypnotic varied beat with that lovely feeling of falling apart at the seams while sticking together tightly in that true alt-rock sound at its purest.
‘You Don’t Tag Me In Memes Anymore’ is available everywhere digitally, including Spotify and Apple Music. The full ‘Coniphers’ album will be released on May 22.
Watch the full episode of The Week in #Indie HERE.
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Click HERE to watch Season 1 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.ABOUT LAZARIS PIT
Raleigh-based rock outfit Lazaris Pit have announced they will release their new ‘Coniphers’ album. Ahead of that, they present the lead single ‘You Don’t Tag Me In Memes Anymore’, a modern-day break-up song, often detached from the moments that make life worth living and musing on the deeper workings of it all with the grim reality that someone important has moved on. They also present a video rendition of this single, live in Athens, Georgia.
The B-side ‘Cloudsculpting’ showcases another facet of this album, evoking the image of spending a dreamy tranquil day, gazing up at the clouds and imagining what it might be like to live peacefully high up in the fluff and blue sky.
Formed in June 2017, this self-named “pack of cosmic dogs” consists of Ely “Salted Sweet Cream” Yarbrough (guitar and lead vocals), Cameron “Sugarfoot” Preston (bass) and Jon “Dok Tok” Castro (drums and backing vocals).
‘Our album ‘Coniphers’ is named after a brother of ours lost along the way. Included are 8 tracks of the good stuff, heady grooves and sweet pop tunes, funk breakdowns to zero gravity ambiance…. 42 minutes of rock n roll,” says Cameron Preston.
“Lead track ‘You Don’t Tag Me In Memes Anymore’ is a microcosm of the album as a whole, embodying our familiar Lazaris Pit sound. Is ‘Memes’ a pop song with a punk twist or is it a shoegaze song with some pep in its step? We aren’t quite sure what to call it, but we know it has been lighting up faces whenever mentioned and burning down dance floors when played live,” says Ely Yarbrough.
‘Coniphers’ was recorded live in-studio from November 2019 to January 2020, showcasing a band playing like a pack of hungry dogs, sinking their teeth into a meaty T-bone for the first time in ages. Recorded and mixed by Artem Smirnov at Common Thread Studios in Raleigh with additional engineering and creative input from Michael Graziano and Matt Graham, this album was mastered by Alexander Kretov at Ummagma Studio.
Lazaris Pit freely improvises a dreamy blend of punk, funk, soul, psychedelia, reggae, jazz, noise, and ambiance into a one-of-a-kind dance party. The result: a mind-meld of musical tapestries that take the listener on an emotional journey through time and space, and ourselves in the process.
They’ve brought their unique brand of rock-n-roll far and wide, having played shows up and down the east coast and southeast from Philly to Atlanta and New York to New Orleans, their sound filling large festival fields, historic college campuses, and the most intimate of dive bars and clubs.
Noting music aesthetic and sound inspirations in the sense of a launchpad rather than as blueprints, Lazaris Pit’ counts Fugazi and Grateful Dead among their inspirations, as well as classic R&B, Phish, Curtis Mayfield, Cream, Pink Floyd, Ween, George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, Primus, Flaming Lips, Talking Heads, Sonic Youth, and Yo La Tengo.
Featured image by Travis Merchant.
LINKS:
https://www.lazarispit.com
https://lazarispit.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/lazarispit
https://twitter.com/themLPboys
https://www.instagram.com/lazarispit
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_mbHlwbaZgIBhb56ybbiAg -
Jammerzine’s The Week in #Indie for 6/29/2016
This week’s episode includes the latest from Clifffs, The Retinas, Skyler, The Ellipsis, and the Blue Soap Music Blue Soap Box Top 10 in independent tracks.
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An Interview with The Church
Jammerzine has an exclusive interview with The Church’s Steve Kilbey. With today being the release of the Church’s new concept ‘prog’ album titled ‘The Hypnogogue’, Steve gives up the ghosts and gives us a glimpse of the process that became ‘The Hypnogogue’ in this vivid and candid conversation.
‘The Hypnogogue’
For those of you that think you know The Church, think again. this is as much a continuation as it is a reimage. ‘The Hypnogogue’ is a loose concept. An album inside a story idea. Past that, it’s left to interpretation.
You cannot help but ask yourself if you are not hearing that transition within each song. The first thing I notice as I write this, having just come off the interview and talking about this being The Church’s 26th album is that The Church still manage to remain relevant with their 26th album. As someone who has been in music as long as I have, as well as being a writer, I can be the first to tell you about writer’s block.
Having said that; I can’t also help but notice those little signatures that tell you it’s The Church. But we also hear the new elements. Or is it a newfound inspiration. Or just the consistent love for music. And, while the experimentation element is there, it’s there sparingly. Not done for anything other than spreading the wings. Not doing it for the sake of saying it was done. And, while I can honestly say I have had a fondness for all of The Church’s albums, I can now count ‘The Hypnogogue’ among those albums.
About The Church & ‘The Hypnogogue’
“The Hypnogogue is the most prog rock thing we have ever done. ‘We’ve also never had a concept album before,” says Steve Kilbey. “It is the most ‘teamwork record’ we have ever had. Everyone in the band is so justifiably proud of this record and everyone helped to make sure it was as good as it could be.
Personally, I think it’s in our top three records.” Entering their fourth decade of making music and playing live shows with all the fierce creative energy of their early years, The Church have announced a North American tour that kicks off on March 11 th in Los Angeles and circles the States, concluding on April 8th in Pelham, TN.
Starting out in 1980, The Church have continued to expand their highly cinematic and atmospheric blend of indie rock, shimmering post-punk, icy dreampop and psychedelic post-rock without any retread. Their expansive music career yielded a string of hit songs including “Under the Milky Way,” “Reptile,” “The Unguarded Moment” and “Almost With You” amongst others and their equally stellar live shows have been deemed “spectacular” by MAGNET Magazine, citing their “dreamy psychedelia that will daub your evening with shades of paisley.”
Their most recent U.S. performance at 2022’s Cruel World Festival alongside Blondie, Bauhaus and Morrissey was heralded as “a subtle delight… that captivated the late afternoon audience” (Orange County Register), “providing the perfect soundtrack” (Rock Cellar Magazine).
The 2022 epic five-piece line-up is bassist, vocalist and founder Steve Kilbey; with long-time collaborator Tim Powles, drummer and producer across 17 albums since ’94; guitarist Ian Haug formerly of Australian rock icons Powderfinger, who joined the band in 2013 and Jeffrey Cain (Remy Zero), touring multi-instrumentalist who is now a full-time member of The Church since the departure of Peter Koppes in early 2020. The band have also recruited Ashley Naylor, long-time member of Paul Kelly’s touring band and one of Australia’s finest and most respected guitarists (Even, The Grapes, The Stems).
Featured image by Hugh Stewart.
LINKS:
https://www.thechurchband.net
https://linktr.ee/thechurchband
https://www.facebook.com/thechurchband
https://twitter.com/thechurchband
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE4pG8VtygweNYuwXjJVpiA
https://www.instagram.com/thechurch_band